Flying wings are known in the art. The control of a flying wing uses a number of control surfaces to control the movement of the flying wing. The control surfaces depend on input from various sensors which provide information on various parameters needed to control the flying wing.
Today's solutions may involve many mechanical and electrical systems as well as sensors exposed to high loads. All this leads to limited robustness of the flying wing and involves high cost in the form of for instance lower reliability, greater complexity of the flying wing to achieve desired control properties, decreased time before serviceability is exceeded and increased development times.
One application used today for flying wings is the production of energy from a fluid stream by letting the flying wing be attached to a tether and allowing the energy of the fluid stream be converted to electrical energy by any suitable means. Measuring and controlling the flying wing's position indirectly from for instance tether angles relative to a surface is an imprecise method. The sensors used may exhibit a level of noise which when used to control the control surfaces causes mechanical fatigue due to unnecessary movement of the control surfaces. Traditional solutions such as Kalman filters cannot remove all the noise from sensors. Sensors may additionally experience wear from being exposed to the fluid stream.
There thus exists a need for an improved method for controlling a flying wing.